Former N.B.A. Employee Says Sexual Harassment Concerns Were Ignored

A former N.B.A. security official says that he repeatedly warned his superiors that women in the office were being sexually harassed or discriminated against, but that his concerns were ignored and that he was ultimately fired for his actions on the women’s behalf. He is suing the league for lost wages and damages.

Warren Glover, 50, was fired as a security director in July, after 10 years with the N.B.A., despite a glowing performance record for most of his tenure, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday morning in New York State Supreme Court. In the suit, Glover accuses senior N.B.A. security officials of creating a “hostile work environment” in which he was “demeaned,” “treated differently from other employees” and denied promotions because of his willingness to speak out.

In one instance, Glover said a senior security official made sexual advances toward a female colleague, then demeaned her publicly when she rejected his advances. In another, a different security official proposed using sexually inappropriate material as part of a presentation to N.B.A. players.

“We all had a responsibility to do something in these instances, and I did what I needed to do,” Glover, who was making $117,000, said in an interview. “I don’t feel I put my neck out. It may seem that way now, but under the circumstances I did it and I thought it was the right thing to do.”

In addition to the N.B.A., Glover is suing Bernard Tolbert, the league’s former senior vice president for security; James Cawley, who succeeded Tolbert last year; and Gregory Robinson, the senior director of security, who was Glover’s immediate supervisor.

Tolbert left the N.B.A. in October 2010, a year after settling a sexual harassment suit filed against him by Annette Smith, an administrative assistant to Glover. It was Glover’s sworn testimony in the Smith case, his suit says, that helped trigger the chain of events leading to his diminished standing and his eventual dismissal.

“Mr. Glover’s allegations are without merit, and we will vigorously defend against them,” Mike Bass, a league spokesman, said.

Reached by telephone early Thursday afternoon, Tolbert said he was unaware of the lawsuit, or that Glover had been fired.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Tolbert said. “I retired from the N.B.A. quite some time ago.” He added, “This is all news to me,” and declined to address Glover’s allegations.

A former lieutenant commander for the New York Police Department, Glover joined the N.B.A.’s security team in 2001 and was promoted to director in 2004. He was in charge of security planning for several major events, including the N.B.A. finals, the draft, the Hall of Fame ceremony and the All-Star weekend Jam Session, which draws more than 100,000 fans.

In his lawsuit, Glover says his performance reviews were consistently positive until 2007, when Robinson gave him his lowest score, after a series of incidents in the department.

In 2004, an employee named Selman Allsop complained that she had been subjected to “offensive verbal remarks” from another security director, John Daniels, “after she had rebuffed his unwelcome advance,” the lawsuit says. When Glover relayed those complaints, Tolbert dismissed them as false and accused Allsop of trying to damage Daniels’s career.

Although his performance reviews remained strong, Glover said he was denied a promotion to senior director in 2006, losing the position to Robinson. In Glover’s 2006 evaluation, Robinson praised him as “one of the best security professionals” Robinson had “ever worked with,” and recommended him for a promotion to senior director, the suit says. Tolbert denied the promotion.

Another harassment complaint involving Daniels surfaced in 2007. An employee, Laurie McMurray, reported that Daniels had displayed “pornographic material” on his computer and had made “offensive and intimidating” remarks. She brought the concerns to Robinson, who declined to act or take the matter to Tolbert, the lawsuit says.

McMurray’s complaints eventually came to the attention of Glover, who reported them to Robinson — who said he did not want to get involved, the suit says — and then to Tolbert.

Photo

The former N.B.A. security director Warren J. Glover.Credit
Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

The lawsuit said Tolbert later spoke to Glover and “delivered a thinly veiled threat” that anyone who informed McMurray about Allsop’s previous allegations against Daniels “would be fired.”

That summer Glover received his lowest evaluation score since joining the N.B.A., the suit said.

“This lawsuit’s about retaliation,” said Glover’s lawyer, Randy McLaughlin, of Newman Ferrara in New York.

McLaughlin added: “The N.B.A. basically failed Mr. Glover and the N.B.A. failed the women who reported to him. I mean, he did the right thing. He did absolutely nothing wrong. And instead of ferreting out the problem, really investigating it and making sure women weren’t subjected to this kind of abuse and a hostile work environment, they punished him.”

The league was already dealing with a scandalous sexual harassment case — involving the Knicks and Isiah Thomas — during the same period. In January 2006, a former Knicks executive, Anucha Browne Sanders, sued Thomas and Madison Square Garden. The parties settled, at Commissioner David Stern’s request, in December 2007, with the Garden agreeing to pay Browne Sanders $11.5 million.

“I think there’s a culture of misogyny in this association,” McLaughlin said, referring to the league office. “And it starts at the lower levels and it’s tolerated and condoned at the higher levels. Because there’s nothing being done.”

At the time of the Knicks case, Stern said the league would redouble its efforts on the issue, saying, “I can assure the public that sexual harassment is not acceptable in the N.B.A. workplace.”

Smith’s complaints against Tolbert occurred from 2005 to 2008, and included allegations that Tolbert displayed a “demeaning attitude and conduct towards women,” Glover’s lawsuit says.

Glover cited a 2008 incident in which Tolbert handed Smith a photo of an obese, naked woman lying on top of a man, who is barely visible. Tolbert, according to Glover, wanted Smith to incorporate the image in a presentation warning players about the dangers of drinking. Smith was so upset that she went home, Glover said.

When Glover explained why Smith had left, Glover said Tolbert responded: “If she doesn’t like it, she can quit. One monkey don’t stop no show.”

Smith did quit, and sued Tolbert and the N.B.A. in September 2008. In a conversation shortly thereafter, Robinson told Glover that he “was in trouble” and that his involvement in the case “would be detrimental to his career,” Glover’s suit says.

Glover took his concerns to Litvin, Tolbert’s immediate supervisor. But Litvin “halted the meeting” and told Glover to take the matter to the human resources department, the court filing says.

Glover gave a deposition in the Smith case in May 2009. A month later, at the N.B.A. finals in Orlando, Fla., Glover said Tolbert turned to him and said: “It’s all your fault. You testified for your girl.”

McMurray’s complaints against Daniels continued. In July 2010 she accused him of using office security cameras to spy on women in the office, according to the suit. Three months later Tolbert left the N.B.A. “following a sizable settlement awarded to Smith,” Glover’s lawsuit says.

Court records indicate that a settlement was reached in the Smith case. But the details are not available. Tolbert was replaced by Cawley as the department’s senior vice president.

This past June, on the occasion of his 10th anniversary with the league, Glover received a congratulatory letter from Stern, along with a gold watch. A month later, according to the lawsuit, Cawley called Glover into a conference room and informed him “that he was being terminated as a result of his poor performance.”

Glover, who lives in Queens, said he was still looking for work. He is living off his police pension, which he earned after 20 years with the department. In an interview, Glover said the sexual harassment problem in the N.B.A.’s security department “goes pretty far” and remains unresolved.

“They encourage you to report something and when you do, it seems as if it’s taken out on you,” he said. “And that’s a problem, I feel.”

A version of this article appears in print on December 16, 2011, on page B14 of the New York edition with the headline: N.B.A. Ignored Sex Harassment, Suit Says. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe